Question 81·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas
Some historians attribute the growing geometric precision of eighteenth-century city maps to survey offices' adoption of standardized instruments. Other historians emphasize a simultaneous change in how the maps were used: city councils increasingly required them in property disputes, giving cartographers reason to mark boundaries carefully. ______ improved instruments may have made greater precision possible, while new legal demands made that precision valuable.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For a transitions question, identify the exact relationship between the ideas before and after the blank. Here, compare the two historical accounts and then determine whether the final sentence contrasts them, ranks them, or shows how they can operate together. Choose the option that states that relationship precisely rather than one that merely mentions the same topic.
Hints
Separate the roles
Determine what the instruments contributed and what the legal use of maps contributed.
Notice the structure
Consider whether the final sentence chooses one account over the other or assigns each account a role.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the two accounts
The first account focuses on standardized instruments. The second focuses on city councils' increasing use of maps in property disputes.
Examine how the final sentence treats them
The final sentence does not reject or rank either account. Instead, it gives each factor a separate role: one made precision possible, and the other made precision useful.
Choose the transition that expresses this relationship
The transition must introduce a synthesis in which the two accounts concern different but compatible aspects of the same development.